


Feelings

by creativityobsessed



Series: Wishes [2]
Category: 30歳まで童貞だと魔法使いになれるらしい | Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! (TV)
Genre: Birthday, First Kiss, Fluff, If any of yall have any teeth left after the sweetness of the first one I'm here to change that, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:48:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27837835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creativityobsessed/pseuds/creativityobsessed
Summary: After falling asleep on Kurosawa's shoulder, Adachi realizes he really likes what Kurosawa was feeling and starts chasing that high. A few weeks later, he feels it - but there's no way they could be touching. Is the Magic getting stronger?
Relationships: Adachi Kiyoshi/Kurosawa Yuichi
Series: Wishes [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2037601
Comments: 43
Kudos: 478





	Feelings

**Author's Note:**

> Firstly, big thank you to my beta/cheer-readers [unacaritafeliz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/unacaritafeliz) and [ohmypreciousgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmypreciousgirl/pseuds/ohmypreciousgirl)
> 
> Second, many many thanks to those of you who read and commented on Wishes. I never intended for Wishes to go beyond that single one-shot - I wrote the cuddling scene as an example for a friend, and I wanted a place to put it, and that was all that fic was ever supposed to be. After the overwhelmingly positive responses, many of which asked for more, well, here we are. You are the entire reason this continuation exists. Thank you.
> 
> For those of you who haven’t read Wishes, this work could stand alone, but relies heavily on the events of that work, so I recommend starting there first.

In the weeks after their movie night, Adachi finds himself unable to forget how it felt to sleep on Kurosawa’s shoulder. At the time he’d thought that it would be impossible to sleep, so he hadn’t really worried that it might happen. The new feeling of being pressed up against someone, and the constant stream of thoughts should have kept him awake easily. Instead, Kurosawa wasn’t thinking words at all. The fond feelings flowed off of him in waves, and it felt a bit like being bathed in a hot spring. It made Adachi feel like his insides were sliding towards his toes, but once he got used to it, he liked it.

He liked it a lot.

Once he realizes that, he decides that he wants to experience it again. He’s not quite sure how to manufacture an excuse to nap on Kurosawa, though, and just asking him if he’d be willing to spend a date being a pillow feels, well, unkind to put it mildly. And so, he is left daydreaming about how it felt and hoping that someday he’ll get a chance to do it again.

A few days later, as Kurosawa walks him to the train station, he’s so preoccupied with missing that warm feeling that he’s finding it difficult to keep up with the things Kurosawa is saying. He’s chatty enough that he probably won’t notice, though, so Adachi doesn’t feel too bad about spacing out slightly. He absently slips his hand in Kurosawa’s, and lets his words flow around and through him. 

Kurosawa’s sentence trails off, and he looks down at their hands. Adachi comes back to the moment just in time to hear Kurosawa think  _ He did it first? _ , and then those same feelings that Adachi had felt from him while they cuddled a few nights ago hit him like a truck. It feels like he’s flying, and every nerve in his body is on fire. He can’t help closing his eyes and swimming in the warmth of it for a few moments.

“Adachi?” Kurosawa asks. Adachi opens his eyes and smiles at him. He jerks his head towards the train station. When Kurosawa eventually lets go, as they approach the crowds, he almost doesn’t want to let him. 

“See you tomorrow?” Kurosawa asks.

“Mm,” Adachi agrees, rubbing his hands together. His left feels cold now that Kurosawa has let it go, and he shivers a little. 

“You ok?” 

“Oh, yeah. Just, you know, it’s chilly.” 

“I could always lend you my scarf again,” Kurosawa offers, but just then Adachi’s train pulls into the station. 

“I gotta go,” he says, and he escapes into the crush of people going home from work.

It takes most of the ride home for him to come down off the high of Kurosawa’s feelings, but once he does, he starts to think about what just happened. Maybe he doesn’t  _ have _ to be sleeping or cuddling or any of that to get Kurosawa to feel those feelings. He just has to- wait. What  _ does _ he have to do? 

After that it becomes a bit of a game. He discovers that compliments tend to only work once, before the novelty wears off. He finds that thanking Kurosawa for something nice he did for him almost always works, but the feelings are flavored with sadness at, well, something. The pure feelings are harder to interpret than Kurosawa’s actual thoughts. He suspects that gifts would work well but he can’t think of a way to pull off a surprise gift while also being in range to touch Kurosawa when he opens it. Once, he asks Kurosawa to teach him how to cook someday and the feelings are so strong that he nearly passes out, and Kurosawa asks if he’s ok.

The most reliably effective method, though, is physical affection. A slight brush of fingers in the elevator while no one is looking. The rub of a thumb over his knuckles as they’re holding hands. Even, once, a kiss on the cheek while they’re walking in a mostly deserted park, though it took a lot of working up to. And that sort of thing has the added benefit of shutting off the mushy internal monologue that Kurosawa runs most of the time they’re together. Adachi still isn’t used to that, and doesn’t think he ever will be.

* * *

“Adachi?” Fujisaki asks one morning. Adachi drops his phone on his desk, scrambling to look like he’s working and not rereading the last few days of texts from Kurosawa.

“Yeah?”

“The copier is out of paper, can you help me carry a box over from the store room?” 

“Oh. Sure.” He feels guilty somehow, though there’s no way Fujisaki could know that he’s had trouble focusing in the last few weeks because of Kurosawa.

The second they’re in the store room, Fujisaki slams the door shut. Adachi jumps and whirls around to find her shaking her finger in his face.

“Ok, listen, because I’m only going to say this once,” she says. Adachi nods fervently, afraid to actually say anything.

“You two need to  _ cool it _ with the lovey-dovey stuff, ok? The last time you went on a date, it took me an  _ hour _ to convince Urabe it wasn’t  _ me _ you were smiling over. And no, I didn’t tell him who it actually was, I promise. Look, I’m happy for you both, you and Kurosawa both deserve it, but if you  _ really _ don’t want the office to know, you gotta at  _ least  _ pick different days to be on Cloud 9. Got it?”

“What?” Adachi says, louder than he intends, and Fujisaki shushes him.

“Sorry. What?” he tries again, in an exaggerated whisper, “How did you know?”

“Are you kidding me? He’s had a crush on you for years and he is  _ not _ subtle. You have your back to him. You don’t know how often he stares at you across the room.”

“He  _ what?! _ ”

“You heard me. So when he came back to work all happy after that Osaka trip, and you were suddenly more awkward than usual, it didn’t take much to put two and two together.”

“I-”

“And  _ now _ you’re in some kind of, what? Sweetness competition? I don’t even know, but I swear my teeth are gonna fall out from whatever it is. Neither of you have  _ any idea _ how to act normal, and I end up running defense.”

“We didn’t mean-”

“The worst of it, of course, is the lunch group. His fanclub is  _ so devastated _ and it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done to not sit there laughing at how oblivious they all are. They keep speculating about what ‘she’ looks like, and none of them are even close. The current vote is a leggy blonde American here for a movie shoot.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“They always want my input, and then I have to lie.”

“Ah.”

“So anyway, my point is, tone it down at work, or I’m not going to be able to cover for you anymore.”

Adachi nods vigorously. Fujisaki steps around him to get at the paper boxes.

“I’m sorry,” he says, a few moments too late, “I didn’t know.”

“Yeah, I know,” she replies. She pulls a paper box part way out and braces it with her shoulder, “Really, it’s cute. But I also don’t want you to accidentally out yourself, you know? Or worse, have Urabe drag you out. I’ll keep covering for you. And I wouldn’t have said anything, but really, Urabe is going to get around to asking you himself one of these days, and you’re a  _ terrible _ liar.”

“I- How do you-?”

“Don’t you remember? You tried lying to me the first week you were here. I asked if you knew how to use a piece of software and you were so terrified you’d lose your job that you stuttered until I offered to show you the highlights.”

“Oh.” 

“Now, come on, help me lift this box,” she waves a hand, and Adachi steps over to catch the weight of the box as Fujisaki finishes pulling it off the stack. She sets her end on the floor, so Adachi follows suit.

“One more thing,” she says, inspecting the lines in her hand from holding the box, “His birthday is coming up.”

“What?”

“I have it from a very  _ reliable _ source that his birthday is on Saturday. And,” she looks up at him mischievously, “I’m rooting for you.”

Finally it clicks. Fujisaki mentioned that she thought they were in a sweetness competition - she thought he would want to know about Kurosawa’s birthday to  _ do something _ for him. Which, come to think of it, he probably should. He doesn’t know the first thing about doing a birthday for a boyfriend, though. It’s difficult to even use the word in his mind still.

Even if he doesn’t have the instincts, he does probably have the knowledge. He’s read every one of Tsuge’s books, and a few other romances besides. In theory, he knows what a fancy date looks like. He could pick a nice restaurant and they’d dress up in nice suits, or, well, nicer suits than the office ones, and he’d pay for Kurosawa to have a nice glass of wine and-- 

These thoughts occupy him all the way back to his desk where he tries, and fails, to resist looking up restaurants that would be good but still in his price range. He’s got it narrowed down to three options when Fujisaki clears her throat pointedly and he looks up to see Urabe heading his way. He quickly minimizes his browser window and looks as busy as possible. It must have worked because Urabe doesn’t actually interrupt him.

The morning flies by, and soon enough it’s lunch time. Kurosawa beats him to the break room and looks up excitedly as he enters. Adachi smiles back, and then remembers Fujisaki’s warning. He pulls out his phone and texts  _ Fujisaki yelled at me this morning for not being subtle enough. Maybe lunches together is too much. _ He picks a seat where he and Kurosawa can see each other, and sits by himself.

_ Fujisaki knows? _ Kurosawa texts back.

_ Apparently. She says she’s watched you stare at me a lot so it wasn’t hard to guess.  _ Adachi looks up to check Kurosawa’s reaction, but he doesn’t seem to be embarrassed by this at all.

_ Ah. Sorry. _

Adachi sets his phone down to begin unwrapping his onigiri. It rattles noisily against the table, and he jumps.

_ How about another movie night this Saturday? _

Adachi frowns. He wants to say yes, he really does, but a date in? For Kurosawa’s birthday? That doesn’t feel right. That would be Adachi’s choice of date.

_ Isn’t it your birthday on Saturday? _

_ How did you know that? _

_ I have my ways.  _ Adachi looks up, waits until Kurosawa looks over, and winks ever so slightly. Kurosawa’s face goes blank in the way it does when he’s busy being amazed at Adachi liking him back. 

_ You are not cooking for your own birthday.  _ He adds. Then he takes a deep breath. This is it.

_ Can I plan Saturday? As a surprise? _ Adachi texts before he loses his nerve. He watches as Kurosawa checks his phone and the corners of his eyes crinkle as his whole face lights up, and there it is. That swooping warm feeling that he’s starting to expect every time he does something sweet for-

Wait. Kurosawa is twenty feet away across the room, there is  _ no way _ they could be touching.

Just to be sure, Adachi checks. Feet, legs, arms - definitely not touching anyone. 

So where is this feeling coming from?

* * *

_ Tsuge you’ve gotta help me! _ Adachi texts as soon as Kurosawa drops him off at the train station that evening.  _ I think the magic is getting worse. _

_ What? _

_ I’m on my way over, I’ll explain then.  _ Adachi needs to take care of this as soon as possible. The thought that his mind-reading might be intensifying has made him jittery all afternoon, to the point that Kurosawa noticed and used their pass-phrase to get him alone just to ask if he was ok. He had immediately remembered Fujisaki telling him he was a terrible liar, found that knowing about it made no difference whatsoever, and muttered something about having had too much coffee. 

He arrives at Tsuge’s a few moments later and forgoes the doorbell for thumping loudly on Tsuge’s door. 

“Tsuge!” he yells. He can hear movement inside, but he keeps banging on the door anyway. 

“What!” Tsuge roars as he opens the door. Adachi just pushes past him and drops his backpack inside.

“You gotta help me, Tsuge, please. If I start hearing thoughts without even touching anyone I’m going to go crazy,” Adachi begs. 

“You heard thoughts without touching anyone? How?”

“I-” Adachi pauses, unsure what to say. On the one hand, if he tells Tsuge everything then they can logic their way to a conclusion about what happened. On the other, he is suddenly feeling very embarrassed at the thought of telling Tsuge that what he’d  _ actually _ done was feel Kurosawa’s feelings from all the way across the room. He flops onto the couch, and Udon glares at him from her perch on the other end of it. Tsuge hesitates briefly, and then sits next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder. Adachi jumps, and then does the mental equivalent of shoving the mess in his brain under the bed.

_ Did something happen that could change the magic?  _ Tsuge asks mentally.  _ Did you- uh. Did you and Kurosawa… _

Adachi jumps away from Tsuge’s touch, shaking his head so hard he feels like it might fall off. 

“We didn’t do anything! Nothing has changed!” he insists. Tsuge purses his lips, clearly not believing him.

Suddenly the doorbell rings, and Tsuge’s entire manner changes. 

“Hide! Hide!” Tsuge says.

“What?”

“It’s Minato!”

“Tsuge, he’s met me. He knows we’re friends,” Adachi says.

“Oh. Right.” 

Adachi shoves him off the couch with a laugh. “Answer the door, Tsuge.”

Tsuge whimpers a little, but heads for the door. Adachi smiles wryly, looking down at his hands. He might be a mess, but at least he’s not as much of a mess as Tsuge. He waves in acknowledgement when Minato says hi, and he does his best not to laugh outright at how awkward Tsuge becomes when he so much as sees Minato. Handing over a package takes twice as long as it should, but he suspects that both of them are enjoying it.

Once Minato leaves, Tsuge collapses on the floor, and Adachi can’t hold in his laughter anymore.

“It’s not funny!” Tsuge whines.

“It is a little bit funny,” Adachi tells him, “The legendary romance writer Tsuge Masato reduced to an awkward mess because of a guy like that.”

“Did you want help with your problem or do you want to make fun of me?”

Adachi swallows his laughter as best he can.

“Sorry, sorry! This is just - you’re very different around him.”

Tsuge glares at him a little before getting up and rejoining him on the couch.

“Fine. How can I help?”

Adachi pauses. He actually hadn’t thought this far ahead. 

“I- I don’t know,” he admits, “You’re the only one I can talk to about this, and… I mean, that’s about as far as I got.”

“Well. Hm. I guess the first thing to do is try and replicate it. What exactly happened?”

“Uh. Ok. I was eating lunch. By myself. And then I- I mean, I-”

“Whose thoughts did you hear?”

“Kurosawa’s.”

“And what did he say?”

“I- well, it’s complicated with him, you know? Since we’re, you know-” he’s done this once, why is it so hard to say it again? “Since we’re dating, it’s not always  _ words _ .”

“Ah. More like a movie then?”

“Uh. Sort of.”

“Ok, well we probably can’t replicate that without him, specifically. But we can try the rest of it. How far apart were you?”

Adachi looks around the apartment. “Probably from here to the door?” he guesses. Tsuge gets up and walks over to the door. 

“Like this?”

“Mm,” Adachi confirms with a nod.

“Ok. Now. I am going to think something at you, and you’re going to tell me what I’m thinking.” 

“Mm,” Adachi agrees. He concentrates hard, not breaking Tsuge’s gaze, but he doesn’t hear anything.

“Anything?” Tsuge asks.

“No.”

“Hm. Was there anything special going on? Maybe I should try, I don’t know, mentally yelling?”

Adachi thinks for a moment. “I suppose it’s possible. Try?”

They hold the stare for longer this time, and towards the end Tsuge’s face starts turning red and contorting. Adachi snickers, unable to hold it in any longer.

“The only thing I’m getting from you now is constipation, Tsuge,” he says, finally letting out a full laugh. 

“I was yelling as loud as I could! You try doing that with a straight face!”

“Ok, ok.”

They tried all sorts of experiments over the course of the next hour, but nothing short of actually touching would work.

“I hate to say this, because last time I didn’t believe you karma was a bitch about it, but either it’s not the magic, or it’s specifically about Kurosawa,” Tsuge says finally. Adachi grimaces.

“Thanks for the help, I guess,” he says, “Sorry to take up your time for nothing.”

“It’s ok. You’d help if it were me.”

And so Adachi leaves for home, feeling no better about things than he did when he got there. 

* * *

The week speeds by faster than Adachi would have liked, and before he knows it, it’s Saturday. He spent all of his free time planning what would happen tonight, and he has somehow kept all of it from Kurosawa. All he’s told him is that he should dress nice, and be ready at 5:30.

Adachi picks out his smartest suit, and a narrow black tie. He runs his fingers through his hair as it dries, realizes he doesn’t really know what else to do with it, and ends up leaving it. As he gets dressed he thinks that maybe this was a bad idea - the end result is just… work Adachi with a narrower tie. He reminds himself that work Adachi is the one Kurosawa saw first, and the one he liked first, but that doesn’t cheer him up much. 

He leaves nearly an hour early, his anxiety pushing him out the door. Running what-ifs in his head at home isn’t going to make anything come faster, and this way he’s prepared for any unexpected Saturday crowds on the train. As a result, of course, this means he’s about 45 minutes early to Kurosawa’s. If he shows up now, Kurosawa will know just how nervous he is. Moving seems to help get out the jitters, though, so he decides he’ll just go for a walk in the area.

Two blocks down from Kurosawa’s apartment building, he passes a florist, and on impulse he goes in. There are beautiful arrangements of daisies and carnations in the window, and he thinks maybe someday he could get Kurosawa flowers. Kurosawa would probably like that. 

“Something for your girl?” the shopkeep asks, coming up next to him. Adachi jumps.

“Oh. Um. Maybe,” he says, and stuffs his hands in his pockets to keep from fiddling in anxiety.

“First date?” he continues, “I can always tell, you’re all so nervous on the first date.”

“Um. Not really. But it’s--” he pauses trying to figure out how to phrase it, “It’s a birthday date. I’m sorry, I’ll get out of your hair.” He turns to go, but the man catches his shoulder. 

“We’re not busy. I don’t mind. Just let me know if you need help.”  _ He reminds me of my husband on our first date, so many years ago. Poor dear. He’s so kind and polite, I’m sure they love him already. _

Adachi takes a steadying breath, and then nods at the shopkeep. 

“Actually, I-” he starts, and then pauses to sort out his thoughts. He wants to get Kurosawa flowers at some point. Why can’t it be tonight? “I don’t have much money, but I’d like to get something.”

In the end, he picks out a single red rose, just beginning to open its petals. He doesn’t want to go overboard, but it’s something, and if Kurosawa likes it, he can always come back to this shop before another date. The shopkeep carefully wraps the tip in wet paper towels and plastic wrap before handing it over to him.

“Be sure to put that in water soon as you get there, ok? It’ll last longer,” the shopkeep warns him. He nods, thanks the man, and heads back out into the chilly evening. 

Picking out a flower took long enough that he’s now only a few minutes early - little enough that he can head to Kurosawa’s without worrying about seeming too eager, or too nervous. He arrives at the building and takes a steadying breath before heading up the stairs to Kurosawa’s apartment. Once there, he takes one last chance to smooth down his hair and then he presses the doorbell.

It feels like an age before Kurosawa actually opens the door. Adachi has made four mini-circuits pacing the space just outside the door, and is facing away when it swings open. He turns, rose in one hand, and meets Kurosawa’s eyes. Somehow in the rush to get the date planned and make sure it was all just so, he’d forgotten that he doesn’t need to be nervous around Kurosawa. Kurosawa knows he’s anxious, he knows he’s trying, and he’s still here. Adachi lets out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, and properly smiles for the first time all day.

Kurosawa, who is wearing the pants and vest of his suit but doesn’t appear to have gotten to the coat yet, stands blinking in the doorway. His mouth drops open, and Adachi recognizes the blank stare of amazement. He smiles a little wider, and holds out the rose.

“For you.”

Kurosawa reaches for it slowly, as if he cannot believe that it’s real. He looks back and forth between it and Adachi several times, and Adachi just keeps smiling. It’s kind of fun making Kurosawa’s brain stop working like this. Revenge, of a sort, for Kurosawa’s habit of teasing him until his anxiety makes him stutter and his voice rises several octaves. 

“They said to put it in water as soon as you can. You know, so it’ll last longer,” Adachi adds, when Kurosawa has taken hold of the rose and he can let go. Kurosawa’s face is doing something strange now, something Adachi has never seen before, and it looks almost like he’s going to cry. 

“Are you ok?” Adachi asks, but before he finishes the question, Kurosawa wraps him in a hug. 

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Adachi says with a chuckle, and he wraps his arms around Kurosawa in return, rubbing his back a little as he does.

* * *

The meal is wonderful, and Kurosawa gushes over Adachi’s choice of restaurant multiple times. The first time he does, Adachi finds his feet under the table, unsure if he really does feel that way, or if he’s just impressed with Adachi’s first attempt at planning a date. He feels a little ashamed when all that comes through is an inner monologue much like the things that Kurosawa is saying out loud - Kurosawa has never been one to lie, and he knows that. But the reassurance helps his anxiety and he relaxes into just spending a lovely evening with his boyfriend. After a few hours of good food and wine, they decide it’s time to go, and Adachi insists on walking Kurosawa back to his apartment before catching the train back to his own.

“Thank you,” Kurosawa says squeezing his hand as they walk slowly along, “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to pressure you into doing anything this soon, but really, however you found out, thank you. This is… this is the nicest birthday I’ve had in a while.”

Adachi smiles at him and squeezes his hand back. The whole evening has been awash in the soft, warm, swoopy feeling, but it feels especially strong now. 

“I’m glad you liked it,” Adachi replies. They walk another few blocks in silence, enjoying the dark and the quiet, and the companionship. 

A few blocks from Kurosawa’s, Adachi catches movement out of the corner of his eye, and looks up. Drifting past the street lamps are the first flakes of an early snow. 

“Kurosawa, look,” he says, with a squeeze to his hand. Kurosawa looks up as well.

“Snow?” he asks, “It never snows this early.” He turns a hand up towards the nearest flake and it melts on his skin. 

The flakes begin falling faster and faster and Adachi can see Kurosawa’s eyes widen as he watches, his mouth slightly open. A few flakes fall onto his hair and his eyelashes and cling there, and Adachi smiles. He really is a handsome man, but seeing his childish wonder like this is… The warm feeling is back, making his chest feel tight and his insides slip downwards and--

Oh.  _ Oh.  _

It wasn’t the magic. 

He’d been so invested in chasing Kurosawa’s feelings that he hadn’t noticed when they’d turned into his own.

“Kurosawa?” he asks. Kurosawa blinks snow out of his eyes and turns to face Adachi. Adachi feels his breath catch in his throat.

Before he can lose his nerve, he reaches one hand up to Kurosawa’s neck and leans in and kisses him. He doesn’t know what he’s doing, but he doesn’t care. He presses their lips together, and Kurosawa’s lips are soft, warm, and his breath still tastes a little of wine. He stays there for a few seconds and then pulls back. Kurosawa hadn’t responded. What if he was bad at this? What if it wasn’t like Kurosawa had hoped?

“Sorry,” he says quietly, ducking his head, “I should have asked first.” 

He barely gets the sentence out before Kurosawa lifts his chin and kisses him back. His lips don’t feel soft anymore but urgent and insistent, and his other hand untangles from Adachi’s to press at his lower back. Their breaths mingle together and Adachi feels like they’re standing in the warmest ray of sunlight rather than the cold and the snow.

They break apart a few moments later, breathless.

“We’re in public,” Adachi says, suddenly feeling very self-aware.

“I don’t care,” he leans in close to Adachi’s ear, “I’d kiss you anywhere you’d let me.” Adachi’s cheeks flame, but Kurosawa just picks up his hand and continues on the way back to his apartment. 

**Author's Note:**

> At the moment I do not plan on continuing this series. I have trouble getting inspired for AUs once canon officially contradicts them, and I fully expect Episode 9 to do so when it airs tomorrow.
> 
> That said, if you would still like to read more of my work, I invite you to check out [The Art of Letter Writing, A-Z,](http://artofletterwriting.com/wp/) an original, fully online, epistolary romance novel that I co-authored and published in 2016.


End file.
